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Hunter X
Age 0 - The boy is b orn, his mother slain almost immediately after giving birth by a Jurgle, it's razor sharp beak bisecting her along the ribcage. His escape only ensured by the Fourth Rule -'' Leave not the New behind. The savior of the baby has no time to slay the beast, instead praising his luck that the mother will provide an ample enough meal to distract the creature while he makes for the next Gate. Age 4 - They boy has slain his first monster of the Megalabyrinth. His protector looks on with pride, but also with a grim determination. As the child stoops to harvest vital tools from the monster's quilled body - constantly checking and listening for other predators - the protector disappears into the forest, never to be seen by the boy again. This is the Fifth Rule - ''When the New get Tough, they go it alone. Age 11 - The boy has crossed his share of Gates, and seen the horrors that lie in each new level of the Megalabyrinth. He has met a few other travelers, but never joined them. They are on their own journey, searching for their own Gates and their own way out...if there is one. He has seen an Old Jockey - named so for having tamed a Wabberhorn as a mount - rip open his own throat, given up in despair. The boy pleaded with him to stop, that he was breaking the Second Rule "No One ends it before it's Over." The Old Jockey laughed at him, tears streaming down his weathered face as he took his slain Wabberhorn's hook-tooth and pierced his own neck. Age 15 - The boy is no longer Tough, now he is a Livin Been, having mated with a woman - although he hasn't seen her since. He thinks about her every once in a while. Is the New a Tough yet? Or did she get killed by one of the Megalabyrinth's cruel traps? Coming through a sicklethorn thicket, the boy sees a small shelf of rock, it's shade will protect him from this level's burning noon sun, and hide him from the Scorpihawks that patrol the skies. In the distance, the orange glow of a Gate, and to the right of that the green glow that indicates two more - a yellow and a blue. He's chosen to follow the Yellow this year, hoping they will lead him to the End. He slides under the outcropping, seeing that it has been dug out. He calls forth the glowing blade, a physical manifestation of his soul, and proceeds forward cautiously. If it's too deep, he knows it's a Hubbuck lair. A gurgle and a ghastly smell greet him. By the light of his blade he sees the bloating corpse of a woman, and clutched in her arms, wrapped in a pouch of leather, a small babe. Leave not the New behind. They boy takes up the child and leaves the cave. He cannot stay here, the smell will attract all manner of creatures before long, and he doesn't have enough food to share with the baby here. He will have to run for the gate. If only he had picked Orange, his run would be a little longer. Age 30 - He has seen Gates enough to last him a life time, and levels enough to teach him never to be surprised at his captor's inventiveness. He has mated with many women, and been attacked by many thousands and thousands of dangerous creatures. He has the scars to prove his mettle as a survivor. He has nearly starved to death on many occasions. He has lived his life by the Rules. And now, now he stands before a different sort of Gate altogether, something unlike he has ever seen before. The Gates are never easy to cross, always they have some sort of puzzle or guardian. This gate is just... padlocked. He carefully approaches, summoning his blade. The pink glow is reassuring, and he slices the metal of the lock cleanly, catching the falling scrap in his other hand. The gate swings open, and the portal through which he stares is also different from any he has seen before... it leads into a room. A cozy little room with strangely cut trees, shaped as if to be animals with legs and furs stuck to the top, furs like the skins he sometimes uses for blankets. A small fire crackles in a stone enclosure, and on a large platform in the middle of the room sit piles of rectangles, made of amazing thin bark glued together on one edge. He soon learns that these strange objects are chairs and fireplaces and books. Things he could never have had the time to care for or craft in the Megalabyrinth. He exits the room and finds an empty city. He leaves the city and finds a ship. He learns how to use the ship quickly, and he leaves the place he has come to, leaving the Megalabyrinth and joining millions of free people in the skies. Age 35 - The boy has been given a name. Funny that one needs a name, in the Megalabyrinth, no one ever knew each other long enough to need to call each other anything. It had been a joke, he went in to a sheriff's office to claim a bounty on a spelljammer pirate, and - not having a name to call him by - they marked "Hunter X" in the empty box on his receipt of pay. Hunter X. It suited him well enough, after all, what was a name really? He was just a Jailbreaker. That's what the other travellers, the ones still in the Megalabyrinth would have called him if they knew he had got out. He wondered if he would ever meet another Jailbreaker.